1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modification of the pickle injector developed by the inventors of the present invention and described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 89542/1999. The present invention relates to a continuous high-speed pickle injector with improved productivity that can inject a liquid substance such as brine for curing, seasoning or the like into a block of meat such as pork, beef, livestock meat and the like continuously, and disperse the liquid substance uniformly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In meat processing, there is a need for uniform dispersion of a curing agent or seasoning in meat, and a multi-needle pickle injector has been used. However, immediately after injection of a liquid using this known injector, the liquid accumulates in portions of meat where the needles have been inserted. Therefore, the meat processing cannot advance to the next step unless a dynamic stimulus is given with a tumbling machine, a massage machine or the like, to the meat with the accumulated liquid. After such a stimulus, the block of meat is cured until the brine for curing or the seasoning liquid permeates through the block of meat so it is uniformly dispersed. These procedure can take several days. Accordingly, a problem exists with known processes in that several days are necessary to salt loin ham or boneless ham, or to season roast pork.
Moreover, the injection pressure of brine for curing in the multi-needle pickle injector is limited to about 12 kg/cm2 owing to its structure. A low-molecular substance such as salt can easily move inside the block of meat. However, high-molecular substances, or substances having a high reactivity with meat constituent substances cannot easily move inside the block of meat. As a result, the seasoning liquid, which can contain both low and high molecular substances, is defectively dispersed.
A needle-less pickle injector which solved the above-mentioned problems was developed by the inventors of the present invention. That is, in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 89542/1999 in the names of the inventors of the present invention, a practical pickle injector is disclosed wherein brine for curing or seasoning liquid is uniformly, efficiently and continuously dispersed into a block of meat, without deteriorating meat property. This practical pickle injector is not only for thin, but also thick, raw-material meats, and for raw-material meats different in configuration and size. Curing or seasoning can be accomplished with the above needle-less pickle injector without operating a tumbling machine, a massage machine or the like for a lengthy time. And even when there is a difference of injection resistance in meat property, the brine for curing or the seasoning liquid can be uniformly dispersed.
An Object to be Attained by the Invention
An object of the present invention is to provide a pickle injector with which continuous high-speed process is possible, and the productivity of a raw ham or the like would be improved further compared with the case when the pickle injector shown in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 89542/1999 is used.
Means to Attain the Object
After intensive study to attain the above-mentioned object, the inventors have found that it would be possible to increase the efficiency of injection per unit time and to improve the productivity by modifying the conveying method of a block of meat to a continuous method, by locating two or more injecting sections which can repeat an injecting operation, and can inject a liquid substance while moving at a speed synchronized with the conveying speed of a block of meat being conveyed continuously during the injecting operation, and by controlling the timing of injecting operation of each injecting section.
This invention relates to a pickle injector for injecting a liquid substance into a block of meat which comprises a continuous conveying means having one or more rows (lines) for conveying a block of meat; two or more injecting sections that can inject a liquid substance into a block of meat while moving at a speed synchronized with a conveying speed of a block of meat continuously being conveyed by the continuous conveying means; a pressure controller having a pressure control mechanism which can gradually raise the injection pressure from 0 or a low pressure to inject a liquid substance into a block of meat from the injecting section.
This invention also relates to a pickle injector as described above, wherein a timing is set so that only one of the two or more injecting sections can perform the injecting operation of injecting a liquid substance to a block of meat.
A pickle injector according to the invention might also include an injecting section which moves vertically while moving at a speed synchronized with a conveying speed of a block of meat. Another pickle injector according to the invention would locate the two or more injecting sections in alignment above and along the continuously conveying direction of a block of meat.
A pickle injector with aligned injecting sections would preferably have the distance between the two or more injecting sections of a length figured out by multiplying the product of the length of the injecting sections along the continuously conveying direction of a block of meat and the number of the injecting sections by an integer. Such a pickle injector according to the invention would have at least one set of the two or more injecting sections located above each one of two or more lines for conveying a block of meat. Finally, a pickle injector according to the invention would have a pressure control mechanism which can gradually raise the injection pressure from 0 or a low pressure that includes two or more high-pressure pumps.